On Tuesday night, residents and the general public were presented with two very different visions for the development of the former Cruickshanks Funeral Home property on Robie Street.

About six years ago, Westwood Group purchased the property at 2032-2050 Robie St.

Westwood president Danny Chedrawe said he has been working with the municipality to rezone the property, and before bringing any development proposal to HRM, he wanted to actively engage the public about their vision for the site.

His company shared two distinct plans for the site as envisioned by Montreal architect Alexandre Landry of Architecture49.

“The property is going to get developed and we want to do it right…All our projects have done very well and I believe we’ve done a good job because we’ve listened to people,” Chedrawe said in an interview before the meeting.

Described by Chedrawe as “two very innovative schemes,” he said both plans would have a similar economic benefit to him as a developer, but are very different in their offerings, appearance and footprints.

The taller, leaner building would be residential and take up 23 per cent ground space. The shorter, broader building would be for commercial use and take up 70 per cent of the site space.

Architecture49

The shorter building on the right is one of two proposed plans for the 2032-2050 Robie St. property.

“I can’t take both forms forward to the city and I want to hear from the public…I think the debate we have to have is what’s the most important thing to people in HRM today and in the future,” Chedrawe said.

“Is it the space on the ground or is it the space in the air? What is important to people? Sunlight is important to people, scale is important to people. What’s best suited to that location?”

Anyone interested in viewing Tuesday night’s presentation can access it online beginning Wednesday afternoon at www.wspengage.com/FAR . Chedrawe encourages people to comment and provide feedback for the next few weeks.

“We wanted to engage people in a way that people can actually see the facts, see the real thing there and make an informed decision,” he said.

“This here gives them the information. People are intelligent. They will make the choices that they believe are right when they can see the information in front of them.”